TL;DR

On a rainy birthday, we planted the two end rows in the dry field with onions and two end rows of the low main field with lettuces. We then harvested green garlic volunteers from last year’s garlic rows and some lilacs around the property for tomorrow’s pop-up farmer’s market at the new general store in Essex.

No Place I’d Rather Be

It was my birthday today. I never like to make a big deal of it, but some people do. Some people don’t work on their birthday, and some go on a trip. Some have fancy dinners at restaurants with many friends and family. Not me.

I worked with my friends on stuff I like to do and learned some new stuff. When I got home, warm pot sticker soup and carrot cake was waiting for me. Nothing expensive or complicated. Tomorrow morning, a bunch of this season’s farm crew will meet at the Agawam diner because two other peoples’ birthdays are this month too and sometimes you just have to eat amazing pie with friends.

No Greenhouse Watering, but Harvest Prep

The day started with washing a bunch of large tote bins in preparation for harvesting green garlic later in the day. The process is simple but important: soap and water, scrub, then rinse. Anything put on the floor can’t be considered clean, so either a mat or another sacraficial cleaned tote keeps the other clean ones safe. Twenty totes took about 30 minutes including some other outside tasks.

Onion Planting

We planted two more rows of onions in the dry field today, finishing that field’s rows out. We are about 75% through all the onions, at the end of the season totaling 13,000 by hand. There were 4 of us, myself and another volunteer on the slower side dropping while others planted until we joined them. Then we stopped for lunch. This finished out the rows in one of three dry fields.

Lettuce Planting

After lunch, we planted two rows of lettuce in the lower main field, also finishing that field out for the time being. The soil in this field was freshly cultivated and with some light rain was very easy to plant into. It was not muddy per se but did accumulate on boots and pants.

Harvesting Green Garlic

Transitioning from hauling around and planting stuff in a field to harvesting, you want to make sure that the bed of your truck is sanitized, so we scrubbed and rinsed the back out completely. Then the clean totes went in and we drove back out to the dry field with the new garlic and onions, but where the end rows were last year’s garlic harvest because there were many ‘volunteer’ early garlic sprouts popping up. We harvested about one full large tote of these small stalks of “green garlic” to sell at tomorrow’s pop-up farmer’s market.

Harvesting garlic requires a careful and firm approach with two hands, one at the base and another higher up the stalks, to ensure likelihood of bringing the roots and head up with it. Otherwise, and sometimes, you end up ripping off the stalk from the rooted head and leaving stalks unsuitable for sale to customers.

Harvesting Lilacs

On our way back to the barn, we stopped at a few lilac bushes around the property to pick about a dozen bunches to also sell at the pop-up tomorrow. The smell of lilacs is so nostalgic to me since I grew up in a yard that was lined with them. When friends came over, we made forts in the high-bush lilacs at the top of the hill. When I was sad, I went and hid there and cried until things seemed less pointless or I remembered I was hungry.

I think if I had to choose, I’d rather be blind than lose my sense of smell. Lilacs are always bittersweet too in that their wonderful smell means it’s soon to pass (we usually get only a few weeks between their bloom and fade). But every season they come again to remind me that somewhere inside is still a kid with a place to be.

Washing Green Garlic

We drove back to the barn and rinsed off the green garlic stalks off the back of the truck to remove most of the dirt and muck. Then we brought them over to another table to sort and peel the first layer off. This makes them look fresh and clean. The smell is amazing, like everything is made of garlic, including me.

Then we bunched them into about 10 stalks and bound them with elastics before rinsing them outside one final time. Into the walk-in fridge they went in prep for the pop-up farmer’s market.

Word-of-Mouth CSA Marketing

On Friday I had to take my car in for repair. While I was waiting for the place to open, I started talking to a nice guy named Kyle. He asked about my hat which was a gift and says “Farm Boy” on it. I said I worked at a farm in Ipswich. He mentioned that he’s on a waitlist at another farm and I mentioend that Marshview still has a few open shares, full and half, and wrote down the info for him on a card.

Turns out, today he signed up. Sometimes all it takes to attract new business is being friendly and jovial, but it also helps to be happy and sincere in what you do. I can’t say the latter about much of the high-tech work I did in the past decade, even when the former was part of my demeanor at conferences and on calls.

I think community events like ‘seed swaps’ and pop-ups and farmer’s markets are all really important to face-to-face and word-of-mouth interactions that ultimately help to ensure a full book of business with a farm’s CSA program.

AI Captures Detail but Misses the Sentiments

My writing style is…personal…and includes thoughts I didn’t record and colloquialisms I wouldn’t expect an LLM to automatically generate the same as me. But my goal is to write, not to have things written for me. So for now at least, this is okay. Here’s how my AI research assistant summarized my day:

Part 1

Main Themes:

1. Farm work and daily activities
2. Personal experience and reflection on the day’s events (birthday)
3. Learning and growth as a farm intern
4. Interaction with the farmer and other team members
5. Preparation for upcoming markets and events

Activities performed by the intern:

1. Washing green tote boxes
2. Harvesting garlic
3. Planting onions in two rows
4. Loading up truck with radicchio and lettuces for market
5. Cleaning up greenhouse (stacking empty cell trays)
6. Refilling potting table with seedling mix
7. Taking out and dropping lettuces during planting
8. Finishing planting lettuces with the farmer

New things not yet encountered:

1. The specific process of washing green tote boxes ( soap, water, scrubbing, rinsing)
2. The row cover system used for protecting crops from pests/diseases
3. The type of seedlings left over from the plan (not specified)

Questions and future areas of research:

1. What is the typical loss ratio for onions in cell trays?
2. How many trays are needed based on the row length, size, and other factors?
3. What is the expected yield for the upcoming markets (pop-up farmer’s market, general store)?
4. How much more produce is included in the plan than initially anticipated?

Suggested Actions:

1. Conduct further research on optimal washing procedures for green tote boxes.
2. Ask the farmer to explain the row cover system used and its effectiveness.
3. Review and understand the yield expectations for upcoming markets and adjust plans accordingly.
4. Consider exploring additional revenue streams through the general store or other channels.

Part 2

Main Themes:

1. Word-of-mouth marketing: The intern mentions how they met Kyle at the car repair shop and he signed up for a half-share of CSA based on their conversation about farm work.
2. Farm routine and tasks: The intern describes various daily activities, such as harvesting green garlic, cleaning the truck, and preparing it for harvesting.
3. Quality control and attention to detail: The intern emphasizes the importance of scrubbing the truck with soap and water, rinsing the garlic, and carefully peeling off layers to reveal the white inside.

Activities:

1. Talking to Kyle at the car repair shop
2. Signing up new customers for CSA (Kyle and his wife)
3. Harvesting green garlic
4. Cleaning the back of the truck with soap and water
5. Rinsing the harvested garlic
6. Bringing the garlic back to the greenhouse in green totes
7. Individually peeling off layers from each stalk
8. Bunching the garlic into 10-12 stalks per bunch and tying them together with elastics
9. Putting the bundled garlic in the fridge for tomorrow’s pop-up farmer’s market

New Things Not Yet Encountered:

1. The importance of scrubbing the truck before harvesting
2. The process of rinsing the harvested garlic multiple times to remove dirt and muck
3. Using a stainless steel table for further rinsing the garlic

Questions and Future Areas of Research:

1. How does the intern’s hat being visible affect their interactions with potential customers? (Example: “He saw my hat. He said, oh, you like gardening or working on a farm, right?”)
2. What is the optimal method for peeling green garlic?
3. Can the intern suggest ways to improve the efficiency of harvesting and bundling the garlic?

Suggested Actions:

1. Consider implementing a more effective system for cleaning the truck before harvesting.
2. Research alternative methods for rinsing the harvested garlic that may be more efficient or environmentally friendly.
3. Explore ways to promote the farm’s CSA program through social media, online advertising, or other channels.
4. Train new interns on the importance of quality control and attention to detail in farm operations.
5. Consider developing a system for tracking customer sign-ups and follow-up communication with new customers like Kyle.